Freak
by you invented the word tragedy
Summary: Chase has the power to read people's minds. He keeps his power a secret from everyone because it's different. He has his family and best friends that stick by him no matter what, but there's only so much they can protect him from. They can't protect him from his worst enemy: Himself. Unbeknown to even Chase, his power would eventually make his world go up in flames. A/OC B/OC C/OC
1. Chapter 1

**Drama/Family are the main categories for "Freak". "Freak" also falls under the categories of Romance, Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Angst and Humor.**

 **"Freak" has more characters than listed.**

 **Based off of the Troyler Sivoakley (Troye Sivan/Tyler Oakley) fanfiction (of the same name) "Freak" by MelancholyMango on Wattpad. Just to be clear, I'm not _stealing_ MelancholyMango's fanfiction "Freak", I am only _borrowing_ her idea. I have my own characters and my own spin on _my own_ story "Freak".**

 **I already know who I want to end up together in this story, and it might be obvious to some people, it might not be to others. If romance between a canon character and OC (for example, Lydia Martin from Teen Wolf paired up with an OC) stories bother you, then don't read this story. Simple as that.**

 **Important note: _There are no bionics in "Freak", except for Chase's mind reading ability._ So there's no super speed, super strength, laser bow, vocal manipulation, invisibility, sonic scream, heat vision, etc.. Sorry guys, that's the way it has to be. "Freak" is AU and OOC. As stated above, "Freak" also has OC's in it. If a story being OOC, AU, or it having OC's in it aren't your thing please click the back arrow now.**

 **I don't own the TV show Lab Rats or "Freak" by the author MelancholyMango on Wattpad, I only own my OC's and whatever else you don't recognize.**

 **Bree and Chase are twins in "Freak".**

 **"But Mia Teresa Davenport, they aren't twins in the show, and-"**

 **I am 100% aware that they aren't twins, but for the sake of the story, I'm making them twins. I don't know how you guys will react to it, or if you'd read this story if Bree and Chase were twins. But I have a reason. The reason being that I didn't want to have to hold Bree back a grade like I did with an OC in "Freak". And I didn't really like the idea making Bree and Chase step siblings, so twins was the only thing I could come up with.**

 **Remember: Bree and Chase are _twins_ in "Freak".**

 **Birthdays for Adam, Bree, Chase and Leo:**

 **Adam: February 28th.**

 **Bree: November 24th.**

 **Chase: November 24th.**

 **Leo: March 3rd.**

 **Birthdays for Isabelle, Tyler and Katherine:**

 **Isabelle: April 6th.**

 **Tyler: July 13th.**

 **Katherine: December 14th.**

 **Ages of Adam, Bree, Chase, and Leo in "Freak":**

 **Adam: 18 (Senior)**

 **Bree: 16 (Junior, fraternal twin of Chase - older by 11 minutes)**

 **Chase: 16 (Junior, fraternal twin of Bree - younger by 11 minutes)**

 **Leo: 14 (Freshman)**

 **Ages of Isabelle, Tyler, and Katherine:**

 **Isabelle: 18 (Senior)**

 **Tyler: 17 (Junior, held back a year)**

 **Katherine: 16 (Junior)**

 **Pronunciation of Sedakar: Sea-dar-car. Again, it's Sea-dar-car.**

 **(Note:** **OC characters and their actors/actresses in are chronological order,** ** _not_** **in order of appearance.)**

 **Important** : **Amelia Graham has no relation to Agent Graham whatsoever.**

 **OC characters's actresses/actors:**

 **Amelia Graham's actress is Nina Dobrev**

 **Isabelle Marie Sedarkar's actress is Emily Rudd**

 **Jayden Henderson's actor is Colton Haynes**

 **Katherine Lily Sedakar's actress is Danielle Campbell**

 **Caleb Henderson's actor is Tyler Posey**

 **Tyler Joseph Sedakar's actor is Logan Lerman**

 **Veronica Sedakar's (mother of Isabelle, Katherine and Tyler) actress is Angelina Jolie**

 **William Sedakar's (father of Isabelle, Katherine and Tyler) actor is Tom Cruise.**

 **I hope you all enjoy the first chapter of "Freak"!**

 **XXX**

 **Chase's POV**

"Okay, are you actually serious right now?"

I'm standing at the foot of the stairs, eyes narrowed, and feeling very annoyed. Not a emotion I really want to be feeling at six o'clock in the morning, but what can I do about it? I had walked downstairs at six in the morning, hungry and ready to eat breakfast. I pause when I see a very familiar girl standing in my pantry, raiding it. I don't have to look at her face to know who it is.

I stare at the intruder, burning holes in the back of the person's head.

"You know, Chase," Katherine Sedakar - one of my best (and only) friends - says after a while of silence, "it's not at all gentlemanly of you to blatantly - and don't forget slightly creepily - stare at a girl for so long when she's looking through your pantry for Nutella." Katherine's back turned to me, so unfortunately I can't see her facial expression. I instantly open my mouth to defend myself from the accusation, but before I can even say the word "I", she continues: "Seriously Chase, it's honestly a little weird. I know we've been friends since we were like three years old or whatever, but your very obvious obsession with me is getting out of hand." There's a teasing tone in her voice when she says this, and I roll my eyes.

"Why are you looking for Nutella at 6:03 in the morning?"

"Because I heard it calling to me." She answers easily.

I frown. "You heard an inanimate object - a jar of Nutella - calling to you all the way from the other side of town at six o'clock in the morning?"

"Yep." She answers without missing a beat. "And I'm kind of glad Mr. Davenport and Tasha are out of the house by six for work."

"Why?" I don't even have to ask why because I know the answer, but I ask it anyway.

"Because me coming in here at the crack of dawn every single day of the week to raid your pantry and hang out with you would annoy the snot out of them."

". . .Okay." I pause, then say louder: "Well, for the record, I'm not obsessed with you in the slightest. If anything, _you're_ the one whose obsessed with _me_."

She doesn't reply immediately, instead crying out: "Aha!" Then she says: "Yeah, you keep telling yourself that. Whatever helps you sleep at night, hon." I can almost see Katherine's eye roll despite the fact that I can't physically see her face.

I shrug my shoulders. "I'm entitled to my own opinion."

"I'm one hundred percent aware of that, Chase." She retorts, shoving something - most likely a loaf of bread - off to the side. "It's a somewhat free country, after all."

"Somewhat?"

She pops her lips. "That's right. Somewhat."

I cross my arms over my chest and quirk my eyebrow at her turned back. "You finally find it?"

Katherine giggles and turns around, her extremely bright blue fire colored eyes nearly glowing with excitement. A jar of new, unopened Nutella rests in her clasped hands. "Yeah. Found it. It was hiding under the chocolate bars, the bag of unopened marshmallows and the graham crackers." She runs her hand through her long, wavy brown hair and glances down at the Nutella jar with a smile grin on her lips. "You have those things laying around, just _begging_ to be eaten."

I bring up a hand to run it through my hair. Now I remember the reason why I bought those in the first place, a week and a half ago. "Yeah. I've been meaning to ask you that for a few days now. Thank you for reminding me."

Katherine shrugs. "No problem. So, what have you been meaning to ask me?"

"Well, I was thinking we could have a s'more's eating contest or something, sometime."

Katherine blinks. "Really?" She walks over to the counter and pulls open the utensil drawer.

"Yeah."

"Maybe we can make that contest happen. Hmm, sometime within the week, maybe?" She suggests.

"Actually, I was thinking of tonight, if the news says that tonight'll be clear with no chance of rain."

Katherine pauses just as her hand clamps around a big spoon. "Yeah. That sounds good to me."

"So you're in, Kat?"

"Yep, I'm in. And don't call me Kat." She snaps, then grabs the spoon, places the jar of Nutella in front of her and pops open the lid. I watch her as she peels back the fake shiny gold tinfoil. "Ah." She grins, then walks over and throws the tinfoil in the trash can.

I raise my eyebrow. "Why do you even have an obsession with Nutella?"

She just stares at me like I just grew a second head. "Because it's amazing. How can you _not_ enjoy Nutella?"

"I _do_ enjoy Nutella, just not as much as you do. I'm not obsessed with it like you are."

"But Nutella's like God's gift to humankind, Chase." She sighs dreamily, her blue eyes sparkling.

I scowl at this. "Katherine, last week you said that music was God's gift to humankind. The week before that you said fancy dresses with an open back was God's gift to humankind. The week before that you said clutch purses and sparkly heels were God's gift humankind. The week before that you said Tumblr was God's gift to humankind. Tumblr's annoying, and I honestly just don't see the point in even opening the app up, much less refreshing your dashboard, scrolling down, clicking reblog and like button all the time. It's like you're a mindless zombie."

"Hey, I'm not a mindless zombie. I'm a semi-functional zombie when I'm on Tumblr." She pauses, then blinks. "And don't you _dare_ diss Tumblr!" Katherine snaps seriously, her bright blue eyes blazing with the intensity of a thousand suns. "That's like insulting your mother by calling her fat in a dress!"

". . .What?"

"You just don't do it!" She snaps.

I roll my eyes. "Calm down, Princess."

She shoots me an annoyed look. "Don't call me Princess, either."

I reach over and pat her shoulder, grinning. "Don't tell me what to do." I snark, the grin still visible on my lips.

Her eyes narrow at me. "I hate you."

I roll my eyes. "You don't hate me, Katherine."

"You're right," she admits, shrugging. "I only _dislike_ you a bit."

I shake my head, rolling my eyes. "You're such a liar."

She glares at me evilly. I swallow hard. That glare is honestly a little frightening. "You're going to regret that, calling me a liar."

I raise my eyebrow. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, you are." She says slowly, as if trying to be threatening. According to Adam, she's a little on the short side (she's 5'6". Katherine's not the smallest high schooler by any standards, but Adam's always been a tall dude and he always feels the need to remind people how tall he is) but she can be scary when she wants to be, just like her older sister, Isabelle.

Katherine takes a big spoonful of Nutella out of the jar and pops the spoon into her mouth, and a peaceful expression spreads across her face.

Yeah, you're _real_ threatening, Kat.

I roll my eyes and pat her shoulder again, and - unsurprisingly - a sudden, small jolt goes through my hand, like Katherine just shocked me. The jolt travels up through my entire arm, then I hear a slight buzzing noise in my ears as her thought comes to me.

 _Holy heck, I love Nutella. I'm so gonna get Chase hooked on Nutella, no matter what, even if it's actually the last thing I do._

 _Yeah, good luck with that, Princess Katherine._ I think to myself.

I should probably explain what the heck _that_ was. Long story short: Ever since I was born, I've had the power to read people's minds. Nobody knows it expect myself. The hospital where I was born didn't know about this strange power, nor did my parents. I like to think it's because of a rarity. An extreme genetic mutation or something like that. I don't know how exactly I got my mind-reading power.

My father, Mr. Davenport, my stepmother Tasha, and my related-by-blood siblings - Adam, Bree, and my stepbrother Leo - didn't know about my strange ability. They _still_ don't know about my mind-reading power. The only person who knows about my ability is, well, me. I swore to myself long ago to keep this ability a secret from everyone, especially my family members. It's because I don't want to be ostracized so much more than I already am, or possibly get kicked out of the only place I can live in until I'm eighteen years old (I'm currently fifteen years old) because of my hidden power. I intend to keep that promise of keeping my power a secret from everyone - the promise I made when I was nine years old - for as long as I live.

". . . and I think that would be really awesome if we did do that together. So," Katherine says. I blink, realizing she's been finished with the spoonful of Nutella and was speaking to me while I was zoned out, lost in my own thoughts, "what else can we do tonight?"

I chew on my lower lip, thinking for a few moments. "No idea." I answer truthfully shrugging.

"And why not?"

"I haven't really thought that far ahead." I mutter.

Katherine raises her eyebrow, tilting her head. Dang it, I was hoping she didn't hear that. "But you _did_ buy graham crackers, chocolate bars, and marshmallows? For s'more's? And, not to mention you bought these a week and a half ago?" She smirks a bit.

"Shut up."

Katherine straightens her shoulders and puts the Nutella away before throwing the spoon into the sink. It clatters loudly a few times. She sighs. "But seriously, if it is not cloudy or freezing cold out tonight, we'll be able to see the stars clearly and not be shivering. It'll be really pretty outside. And we'll be eating s'mores, so that'll be a bonus." She turns to me, smiling a bit.

"Yeah." I nod in agreement. "It will."

Katherine smiles more before glancing over to her right, at the clock on the stove. It blinks 6:27AM in bright green letters. A scowl crosses her features.

"Oh come on." She mutters, running her hand through her hair. "Why does school have to start so early?"

"We don't have to be at school until 8:30." I remind her. "So there's no rush."

Katherine stares at me like I just asked her if I should go rob a bank or shoplift.

"What?" I ask her, tilting my head.

"You did _not_ just say that!" She hisses, eyes wide.

I frown a bit. "Katherine, the look you're giving me is like I just called your grandmother Marietta hot."

Katherine makes a face like she just ate something sour. "Don't say that, Chase. That's absolutely disgusting."

"I know. And we both know that I don't find your grandmother attractive. She's a sweet lady, but she's _way_ to old for me. I can't go on a date with her. That'd just be incredibly weird. Not to mention illegal, too."

Katherine nods in agreement, still making that face. "That was still gross."

"Anyway," I continue, "why are you freaking out about it? We still have time."

"Do you know how long it takes me to get ready in the morning? I have to share a bathroom with Isabelle! And when Tyler actually rolls his butt out of bed in the morning, he always steals the best or largest piece of whatever breakfast item we're eating. The best piece of bacon, the largest pancake, the largest slice of coffee cake." She lists. "I don't think that'll ever let up."

I nod in agreement. "Probably not. Adam does that too."

"They've got large, gaping bottomless pits for stomachs." Katherine complains. "Seriously, I don't think it's normal for anyone or anything to eat as much as Tyler and Adam do."

For the record, Isabelle is Katherine's older sister, and Tyler is Katherine's older brother.

Isabelle's height is relatively normal for a girl her age, around 5'6". She has shoulder-length dark chocolate brown (almost jet black) hair. She has large, icy blue eyes, eyes she got from her father. She's smart, really pretty, and is a total sweetheart. She never bad mouths anyone ever (expect when someone talks bad about her siblings). She's extremely protective of her friends, to the point where it's almost borderline obsessive overprotective.

I shudder a bit just thinking about it now. I hope that Katherine doesn't notice. If she does, she doesn't comment on it.

Anyway, when Isabelle hears someone talking bad about her siblings or her closest friends (like horrible spreading rumors about that), she turns into a totally different person. When she hears someone talk bad about her friends or family members, it's like she has an alter ego, which Adam, Bree, Leo, Katherine, Tyler, myself and even Isabelle herself all like to call Nogitsune-Isabelle. **(1)**

Nogitsune-Isabelle is one hundred percent, legitimately piss-your-pants scary. Seriously, when Isabelle turns into Nogitsune-Isabelle, it's like she is a Tasmanian Devil, wolverine, shark lion hybrid that's extremely mad. **(2)**

When she gets all Nogitsune-Isabelle, it's really really scary, and Nogitsune-Isabelle isn't someone I'd like to meet again.

If I had one word to describe Nogitsune-Isabelle, it would be yikes. Yep. Plain and simple.

Anyway, Isabelle's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. She has her dumb moments (kind of like my older brother Adam), but she has a bunch of crazy, spontaneous ideas that make her a great friend.

Katherine also has another older sibling, and his name is Tyler. He's seventeen years old, and is considered the school's "jock". "The jock of Mission Creek", as some people call him. Tyler has played or continues to play: soccer, basketball, football, baseball, ran track and field, and has swam for our school throughout his school career.

According to Katherine, Tyler got held back a year in second grade per their parents request. He may seem intimidating, what with him being all muscle, an angular jawline, tall (he's 5'11), sharp bright blue eyes, and calloused hands from sports, but he's actually a big sweetheart. Under the "big scary jock" stereotype, he's actually one of the nicest people on the planet.

Katherine sighs heavily, pulling me out of my thoughts yet again. "I need to go back to my house, so I can-"

An extremely loud clatter from upstairs interrupts her sentence, and we both exchange knowing glances.

Katherine runs her hand down her face, letting out a small groan. "Oh boy." She lets her hand fall back at her side loosely.

"You know what that noise was, Kat?" I ask in a melodramatic voice (but it's unnecessary, because we both know what exactly that is).

She picks up my melodramatic tone of voice and replies in her own melodramatic tone: "Yeah, I know what that noise is, Chase." She says it warily, moving towards me instinctively before saying, "That means I better move out of the way, because-"

"-Here comes the stampede." We say at the same time.

As soon as the last word leaves our mouths, there's two pairs of footsteps slapping against the stairwell. My brothers Adam and Leo are fighting each other to get down the stairs first, but Adam gets the upper hand by shoving Leo forward, catching the younger boy off guard. My poor stepbrother stumbles off the last step and goes flying forward, slamming into the back of the couch. He clings to the back of the couch like a lifeline, and it keeps him upright.

Katherine rolls her eyes at my brothers, while I shake my head, annoyed, but used to their childish antics.

"Hey!" Leo snaps, standing upright while straightening his shirt. "Watch it!"

Adam doesn't apologize for shoving Leo into the couch. He doesn't even slow down. He races toward the cupboard and grabs a bowl, spinning around to look over at Leo, whose glaring at him while fixing his shirt.

"Haha! I won the race!" Adam grins brightly, a smugness accompanying the grin.

"Only because you cheated." Leo fires back, walking over to the pantry and grabbing the box of Lucky Charms.

"I did not cheat." Adam instantly objects, pulling out a spoon. "I merely overpowered you."

Leo raises his eyebrow. "But yet you're as dumb as a box of rocks."

A look of hurt monetarily crosses Adam's features, but it hardens and he says in a calm voice: "I'm not that stupid, Leo. I know how to spell merely. I'm smart."

"How do you spell it, then?" Leo challenges.

"M-e-r-e-l-y." Adam spells out. "Merely." He glares at Leo and squares his shoulders, making him look more threatening. Leo shrinks back instinctively, looking shameful.

I blink. I hadn't expected Adam to say that word, much less know how to spell it correctly. "Wow."

Adam just nods. "I told you I'm smart."

Katherine pats his shoulder. "That's right Adam, you're very smart."

Adam grins. "Thanks, Katherine."

Katherine giggles, then frowns. "Is Bree still upstairs?"

Leo nods. "Yeah. She is. She'll be down in a minute."

Not a second later, I hear a door open then close. Light footsteps can be heard from upstairs, steadily moving towards the stairs. Bree appears a moment later, trotting down the stairs. Her hair looks messy, but her locks of brown hair are actually combed.

"God morning, Bree." We all greet her at the same time.

My twin sister smiles at all of us. "Morning, guys. Morning, Katherine." She brushes her brown hair back behind her ear before trotting over to the counter and grabbing a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios for herself.

My twin sister, Bree, is older than me by eleven minutes. Her long brown hair is down to her mid-back, and her hazel eyes are always glowing. She's the best sister I could ever hope for, honestly.

"Morning." Katherine greets with a nod of her head. "You ready to start the day?"

"Absolutely not." Bree says, yawning.

Katherine giggles. "You're not a morning person."

"No." My twin agrees. "I'm not."

We make small talk for a few minutes over breakfast before we gather our plates and bowls to put in the sink.

"What time is it?" Katherine asks curiously, with a tilt of her head. She places Leo's bowl in the dishwasher and closes it.

"It's 6:57." Adam answers.

Katherine nods, then says that she's leaving early to go to her house and get her up and get her and her siblings ready for the school day. She hugs me before waving at everyone else. "See you in a few minutes." She says, smiling.

"Bye, Katherine." Bree says, smiling at her best friend.

Katherine smiles wider at all of us again before walking out the door, and she shuts it behind her with a gentle click.

I sigh, then glance over at the clock. "We should probably start getting ready for school, too, guys."

Adam groans loudly. "I hate school." His face brightens suddenly, and he smirks cruelly over at me, eyes glowing with mischief. "Maybe we can dress Chase up in a diaper and force him to go to school dressed in that. Yeah, that'll make my day for sure."

I glare at him, shaking my head. I don't verbally comment on his stupid suggestion. I put my own bowl in the sink, give Adam the best death glare I can manage at the moment, then walk upstairs to go get ready for the school day ahead.

 **XXX**

 **Katherine's POV**

I pull my house key out of my pocket, stick the key into the lock, then unlock my front door and push the white-painted-door open, taking my key out of the front door and putting it back into my pocket.

I walk into my house, shutting the front door behind me. I hear my mother and my father talking in the kitchen, and I walk into the kitchen, immediately going over to the refrigerator and opening it. "Good morning, mom and dad."

"Good morning, Katherine." They chorus.

My mom is a fairly shorter woman, with long brown hair and almond-shaped dark blue eyes. My mother's kind, heartwarming smile can lift any bad moods any of us are in in an instant. It can work wonders when one of us is upset over something. Tyler is adamant in saying that he's "immune to her signature kind smile", and "has been for quite some time", but we all know that's a lie, including Tyler himself.

On the other hand, my father is a tall man with sparkling icy blue eyes and dark brown hair. I guess that's where Tyler gets his height from. My father is a scientist and my mother works for the Mission Creek Police Force. She's the deputy of her force, and is highly respected.

I grab the milk and shutting the fridge door before moving over to the industrial sized coffee machine. I quickly select the cappuccino option and wait.

I frown. "Where are Tyler and Isabelle?"

"Isabelle's getting ready and Tyler's still sleeping. Can you go get your brother up?" Dad asks.

I nod. "Yeah." I glance at my mom. "Mom, will you-"

"Put whipped cream and chocolate chips in your cappuccino?" She asks, already knowing what I want. "Yeah, I will, Kat."

I smile and walk upstairs, up to Tyler's room. I don't even bother to knock on his door, I just barge in. "Tyler!" I yell.

My brother immediately throws a pillow over his head and groans loudly. "Shut up, Katherine! It's only. . . Well, I don't know the time, but I _do_ know that it's way too early to be up. Get out."

"It's the same time we usually get you up at." I glance at the mass of pillows and blankets surrounding my brother's body, sighing.

Tyler groans. "Yeah, that _is_ too early! Go away, Katherine!"

"Don't make me start yelling. Because it's too early for that too."

"Don't you dare." He warns. "If you do start yelling I'm going to kill you and sell your body parts on the black market."

I shrug. "Okay."

"How is me killing you just "okay"?" He questions.

"Body parts are worth a lot on the black market." I reply easily. "Besides, you'll be rich for a bit and I'll be six feet under. You'll go to jail killing your sister and I'll still be dead, rotting away until I'm nothing. You get executed and I'll still be dead. Then we'll both be dead."

Tyler groans loudly. "God, that was incredibly morbid! Also, just shut up, Katherine!" He grabs the pillow on his head and throws it in my general direction.

"Make. Me." I mock, dodging the pillow with ease.

After a moment, Tyler sits up and glares darkly at me as he throws his blankets off of him. "I really hate you."

"I know that you know that the feeling is mutual, big brother. Breakfast is downstairs. Come down when you're ready." I send my older brother a wide smirk before throwing the pillow back at him.

Tyler groans loudly when it hits him in the face, and I turn on my heel and walk out of his door, towards Isabelle's room.

"Isabelle?" I'm about to knock on her closed door when it swings open.

My eldest sibling stands in her doorway, totally dressed, but not wearing any makeup. Her long locks of brown hair are down and a little wet, indicating that she showered.

"Yeah yeah, I'm up. I've been up for a while now. And look at my hands. Pruney." She says brightly, holding her hands up toward my face.

"Yep. I can see that." I run my fingers through my hair before saying: "Come on, let's go eat."

Isabelle nods, and we walk downstairs. I plop down at the kitchen table, and my mom puts a mug of cappuccino with whipped cream and chocolate chips in it like I had requested in front of me.

I smile up over at her. "Thanks."

"You're welcome, Katherine."

Isabelle waves at my father, whose reading the paper. "How'd you sleep, dad?"

"I slept fine." He replies, flipping the page in his book. He's reading a book from the Percy Jackson series. He is such a bookworm, it's not even funny. I guess that's where I get my love of reading and writing from.

"Morning everyone." Tyler greets, walking into the kitchen and throwing two pieces of toast into the toaster.

We all greet Tyler good morning before making small talk. My mother is standing at the sink, washing dishes. She's dancing to some overplayed, cringe-worthy bubblegum pop song. Her brown hair is pulled up into a bun, and her entire body sways to said cringe-worthy pop song. She hums along to it as she puts a few plates away. I smile. My mother is the most upbeat person I've ever met. Seriously, it's like nothing can bring her good mood down to the dumps.

After I've eaten breakfast and went up to my room and put on some light makeup, I walk back downstairs. I pull on my jacket, slip on my shoes and sling my bookbag over my shoulder.

"Come on guys," I call to my siblings, "let's go."

They nod and rush off to get ready, appearing two minutes later, their book bags slung over their shoulders. "We're ready." They say at the same time.

"Have a good day at school, guys." My mother calls.

We all say goodbye to my parents and walk out the door front door, and Isabelle groans when she steps outside. "I hate the sun."

Tyler rolls his eyes. "I'm sure you do. You're a night owl."

Isabelle mutters something under her breath then pats Tyler's shoulder.

He frowns. "What'd you say?" Apparently my brother is deaf or he has selective hearing. Most likely the latter than the former.

"Nothing." Isabelle smiles innocently before skipping towards the bus stop. She stops once she gets to our usual spot, where Adam, Bree, Chase, and Leo always wait for us so we can walk to school. The high school isn't far from our houses (and it's so like the school can grow legs and walk away), so we walk there every day. When it's not a nice day out, like when it rains or something like that, we all pile into either Isabelle's, Adam's, Tyler's or my own car and drive to the Davenport household to hang out. We can hang out in each other's houses for hours on end, no joke.

Anyway, once we get there, me and my siblings make small talk, until we hear the familiar voices of our friends.

"Listen, Adam, there's no possible way we could do that and get away with it." Bree's voice reaches my ears first.

Isabelle frowns. "What do you think they're talking about?"

"No idea." Tyler mutters. "But knowing Adam, it's probably something ridiculously stupid."

I roll my eyes. "Probably."

Adam, Bree, Leo, and Chase walk up to us, not even bothering to say hello to us. They must be really wrapped up in their own conversation.

"Are you telling me there's no possible way we can make a pizza in the shape of the Eiffel Tower, "kidnap" the real Eiffel Tower and place the pizza Eiffel Tower in its place?" Adam's voice is incredulous.

Chase shakes his head. "No."

Adam holds up his finger. "Okay, but what if we-"

"Shut it!" His siblings snap, and Adam huffs loudly before falling silent.

Leo waves at my siblings. "Morning, Isabelle and Tyler."

"Morning." They say at the same time, smiling at our friend.

Almost instantly, Isabelle and Adam launch into one of their silly conversations about whatever topic they couldn't finish yesterday. Right now, they're conversing about howling dark purple cats and singing bright green dogs. Yeah, I know: random. Don't ask me why they are talking about this or what sparked this . . . uh . . . "interesting" conversation, because I honestly do not know the answer.

Chase and I fall into our familiar pattern of walking side by side together and chatting about intellectual things. For instance, The First Law Of Thermodynamics. For any of you who don't know what that is, The First Law Of Thermodynamics is a version of the law of conservation of energy, adapted for thermodynamic systems. The law of conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system is constant; energy can be transformed from one form to another, but cannot be created or destroyed. **(3)**

On the other hand, Leo, Bree and Tyler are simply just talking about making plans to hang out together on the weekend, or what classes they think are hard, or what teachers they think are annoying, or what cities they'd like to visit. You know, stuff of that nature.

We continue to chat and walk together side by side by side for a few more minutes, until our high school comes into view. Ah, Mission Creek High School. Home of the Dingoes. Mission Creek High: the place where my best friend gets bullied every day for being a freak (he is not a freak. He might be a little socially awkward, but he's not a "freak", not by any stretch of the word.) The bullying for poor Chase is constant (but we're here to stick up for him), the principle's a short, slightly heavy, mean, cat-obsessed lady, and I sometimes I want to go jump out the second-story window and down onto the pavement below because of the amount of stress of homework and exams. Seriously, it's bad. But I'm one hundred percent sure that my family and friends wouldn't appreciate me trying to end my life, and I know that my parents wouldn't appreciate the no-doubt large hospital bill that will be mailed to us.

Also, having all the random, annoying, or flat-out weird shenanigans I have to go through during school is annoying, too.

Last year in April, Adam wore a black Afro wig, put on a pair of black thick-rimmed glasses, and drew a really messy and really poorly made black-sharpie-made goatee on his own chin and insisted on being called George Anderson instead of Adam Davenport for the entire day. I honestly wanted to throw a flaming brick at his face.

Oh well, at least it's somewhat more tolerable when I'm with my friends. If I didn't have them, I'm sure I would've attempted to hurt a few people on many, many, _many_ separate occasions. Maybe even *actually* a few people.

Unsurprisingly, there are many of the faculties' and students' cars in the main parking lot, even though we are a bit early. Oh well, I already know that even more cars will pile up within the next few minutes.

A voice pulls me out of my thoughts. "Katherine?"

I shake myself out of my thoughts, looking at the person who spoke my name. "Yeah?"

"You're, uh, just standing in the middle of the road. You coming in?"

I blink hard three times to see that Chase's in fact correct. I'm just standing in the middle of the road, most likely looking like an idiot. Adam, Bree, Leo, Chase, Isabelle, and Tyler are all on the steps, looking at me weirdly. Oops.

I try to keep a blush down, but I can feel my cheeks heat up, the heat spreading towards my neck. Great. Epic failure right there. "Right, yeah, I'm coming in." I mutter, moving towards my friends, my cheeks no doubt burning red.

We enter the school's front doors, quickly saying goodbye to each other before going our separate ways, towards our lockers.

I sigh heavily as I reach my locker, spinning the dial and entering my combination, and opening my locker. I place my bag down then grab my forensic science and my advanced calculus binders into my book bag, then slam my locker shut. I put the lock back on and spin it around again, humming under my breath, about to turn around to go to my first class of the day, forensic science with Mrs. Jepson.

Suddenly, a pair of strong arms wrap around my waist, gently pulling me into them. I don't have to turn around to know who it is.

"Good morning, beautiful." A male's voice whispers in my ear softly.

I grin widely. It's Jayden Henderson, my boyfriend of a year. "Good morning, Jayden." I giggle.

Jayden Henderson is a very good, very well known and highly respected player of the Mission Creek varsity basketball team. He's seventeen years old, with light brown hair and hazel eyes, and mocha colored skin. He's tall, around 6'3. He has a slim, lean body type with lithe, hard muscles in his arms and chest, broad shoulders and a very compact yet stocky well-built body. We met two years ago, while he was at a basketball game, and it was like we knew we would be a perfect couple if we dated, and sparks flew from that fist glance. Cliché (and maybe a little weird), I know, but it really felt like that. We became friends, then best friends. Jayden and I became such good friends, it was almost like we were joined at the hip from birth or something.

"How are you?" I ask, turning around to face him. My hands find their way to his shoulders, pulling him closer to me.

Jayden smiles. "Now that I'm with you, I feel amazing." He leans over and kisses my forehead softly.

I giggle, shaking my head a bit at his reply. "That was so corny."

He laughs, nodding his head. "I know. But you love me anyway."

I smile at that, leaning in to kiss him. Jayden had just touched his lips to mine when Adam, Bree, and Leo walk up to us, interrupting our would-have-been kiss.

Jayden nods at my friends. "Morning."

Bree smiles. "Morning, Jayden."

I frown. "Where's Chase?"

"He had to go see Mr. Crosby." Leo answers. Mr. Crosby is my History teacher. I have him fifth period. "He wanted to ask about his grade before he had to get to class. Isabelle and Tyler wanted to wait outside. Said something about waiting for Jack and Amelia."

Jackson - or Jack - Henderson is Jayden's older brother, a senior. He's the power forward on the varsity basketball team, so he's extremely fit. He's got a bit of "bad boy" reputation, which is guess is what drew Isabelle in to him. He might be mean to some kids (especially to those who piss him off), but he is extremely nice to his closest friends, like Tyler, myself, and Bree.

Amelia Graham is the head cheerleader of Mission Creek. She's incredibly smart, and as beautiful as a *Vogue* model: tall, well-built, and voluptuous, with a perfect bronze complexion (that is maintained through bronzer or tan from a bottle.) In terms of her height, she is extremely tall, being between 5'10" to 5'11" (about 6'1" to 6'2" with high heels). She has rich, glossy dark brown hair, and her eyes are described as being very "catlike": slightly slanted and dark brown in colour with thick, long eyelashes. Her clothing is stylish and trendy, but at times seductive to show off her voluptuous figure and her perfect bronze complexion. She's the school's "Queen Bee", and doesn't take any crap from no one. Although Amelia appears to be a sweet, docile, emotionally vulnerable, soft-spoken, innocent, excessively naïve and a childlike girl, that's a lie. That is Amelia's signature persona. In actuality, Amelia is a selfish, spoiled, childish girl with and immature side. Only a few people (Bree, myself, and a few other people in the school like her ex-best friend Carly Stone) know of her "true" side, and we have called her many names over the course of her high school career. Such as: evil, crazy, barbaric, almost completely inhumane, vicious, cold-blooded, cold-hearted, wicked, vengeful, jealous, manipulative, malicious and hungry for respect by everyone and vengeful when she doesn't get her way. Seriously, Amelia Graham the _worst_ person to ever walk the Earth. She's a demon in high heels and fake smilies and preppy clothes and lipstick.

Also, it annoys me how well Amelia can act. She acts completely innocent and nice to us whenever Tyler is around, then turns into the monsteras woman I know and loathe. I wish they'd break up so Tyler doesn't have to deal with Amelia being a "plastic" (a fake person), but Tyler doesn't see the monster underneath Amelia's fake (but extremely well acted, I'll give her that) persona. If I didn't know what a jerk Amelia was, I'd think I'd be one of the little fan girls or one of her "minions" flocking around her, worshiping the ground she walks on.

"You think Isabelle's gonna skip class so they can hang out?" Bree asks, pulling me out of my thoughts.

I nod, silently watching as students start filing into the hallways, until it's filled with so many chatting students it's actually getting a little overwhelming. I can see why Chase wanted to get to class early. Well, he's always wanted to get to class early. I don't know why, but maybe it's because of the loud chatting from the other students. He likes peace and total quiet.

"Yeah. Maybe. Well, I should probably start heading to class." I say to my friends and my boyfriend. I untangle myself from Jayden, who kisses my hair.

"Bye." They all chorus, waving before turning on their heels and heading off in separate directions to their classes.

I walk down the hallway, then say hello to a few of my friends - Sarah Andrews, Jasmine Stone, Rachel Myers and Erica Smith - as we walk towards our first period classes. On the way to forensic science, I end up getting lost in my thoughts, mechanically sitting down in my seat and pulling out my bright red forensic science binder. I sit next to Alexandria Brooks, one of my friends. She's a nice girl and all, but she's extremely shy. Not that I mind, of course.

Then I notice that there are many different tools on the lab tables, along with a box full of pumpkins. The pumpkins are still good, seeing as it was only Halloween on Saturday. I wonder what they're for.

"Good morning, class." My forensic science teacher, Mrs. Jepson, says. "Now, today we're going to use different tools to make indents into pumpkins, then examine the markings of different tools in pumpkins and try to guess what tool was used based off the indent you made in the pumpkin. . ." **(4)**

 **XXX**

 **Chase's POV**

I walk out of Mr. Crosby's classroom, feeling a bit better now than I did a few minutes ago. I was worried about my first quarter grade, and I just _had_ to ask him what my grade was. He reassured me that I had nothing to worry about, I was still in the high ninety's, even with the 79% I got on the last quiz. I almost collapsed from relief, let me tell you.

Anyway, Mr. Crosby had to give me a pass because we ended up talking for an extra five minutes. The hallways are relatively empty, save for a few stragglers or couples (the latter I like to avoid) kissing or hugging each other before they go to their separate classes and don't see each other for forty-five minutes. I remain indifferent as I pass couple blatantly making out, the boy pressing the girl against a wall of black lockers with his hands on her hips, and the girl's hands are threaded in his hair. I wrinkle my nose once I pass them, completely weirded out. Like, just go make out somewhere where everyday, ordinary (relationship-less) people won't walk past.

I turn the corner, headed towards my geometry class that's at the end of the hallway. As I round the corner, I slam into someone, and a jolt of energy (as well as pain, because it feels like I just ran into the side of a building at 80MPH) runs through my body. Without meaning to, I read their thoughts.

 _Ouch_.

 _Yeah, ouch too, buddy._ I think irritably.

"Watch it, you nerdy, lowlife _freak_!" A distinctive male voice says.

I gulp. It's Trent Darby, a defender for the Mission Creek High varsity football team. Great.

"Sorry." I mutter, fixing my shirt before scurrying past him, trying not to wince at the word "freak", even though that word cuts through me like a knife.

Because that's all I am. A lowlife, a nothing, a loser, a nerd.

A _freak._

I'm a freak.

 **XXX**

 **Footnote #1 - Nogitsune-Isabelle. I got the term Nogitsune from the TV show Teen Wolf. Isabelle is my OC, obviously.**

 **Defintion of Nogitsune:**

 **Described as a "dark kitsune" the Nogitsune possesses the body of an individual for no other purpose than to create chaos on which it then feeds. [Nogitsune can also be summoned but once present cannot be controlled.]**

 **Footnote #2 - I can't take credit for that line. I got that line from the Lab Rats episode titled Commando App.**

 **Footnote #3 - I got the definition of The First Law Of Thermodynamics from Google. I have no idea if the definition is accurate or not, but from what I gather, it's pretty accurate. I could be wrong, though.**

 **Footnote #4 - I take forensic science, and we actually did this on the Monday after Halloween. It was messy, but really fun (to use the tools on the pumpkins) and interesting to see what tools leave what indents on a surface. I enjoyed that activity a lot. :3**

 **XXX**

 **Mia Teresa Davenport: Wow, I can't believe that I'm finally done with the first chapter of "Freak", it feels so surreal to me. After literally a few weeks of figuring out what to write, it's finally done. Personally, I'm proud of what I wrote.**

 **Well you guys, how did you like the first chapter of "Freak"? What was your favorite part? I really enjoyed writing the entire first scene of the Chase and Katherine downstair before Adam and Leo came barreling downstairs, but that's just my own personal opinion. Was the first chapter good? Bad? Does it need work? What do you want to happen next? Drop a review in that box down there or shoot me a PM, I don't bite. I'd love to hear everyone's comments/questions. :3.**

 **I apologize if there are any spelling, grammar, sentence structure, or punctuation mistakes. I looked this chapter over a few time for any mistakes, but I might've missed something small or something like that, I don't know. If I did, please tell me. It would be very much appreciated. :3**

 **Anyway, I'll see you all later with the next chapter of "Freak"! Bye, everyone! :3**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Lab Rats. Swathmore High School derives from the preppy Swathmore academy/school in the Disney XD show "Kickin' It". I don't own that, either.** **I also don't own Giselle Vickers.** **I do, however, own what you don't recognize, like my OC's, and Hartwick High School.**

 **Also, look at the cover photo. That is the official cover photo for Freak that I made in a few minutes. I made it myself. Do you guys like it? Personally, I'm pretty proud of it. (If it loads properly, you'll be able to see Chase, Bree and Adam, Katherine, Tyler and Isabelle in the picture. It will look something like this (with their names on the correct actor/actresses's photo:**

 **Chase Bree Adam**

 **Katherine Tyler Isabelle.)**

 **Anyway, it's time for the shoutouts! :3**

 **Replies:**

 **Ra'Zara The First: Trent's definitely gonna do something to Chase. Or maybe even Bree or Katherine, if he's ballsy enough. . . Enjoy the second chapter.**

 **Dirtkid123: I'm glad you love "Freak" so far, dude! Here's the next update!**

 **Guest: First of all, thanks for the nice compliments. I'm so glad you clicked on this story despite the fact that you don't like Lab Rats stories with OC's in them. You gave it a chance, and I'm glad you like it so much. Really hope you stick around. Do you have an account here on fanfiction? Maybe you could follow and favorite this story so you don't miss a single update of "Freak". And I'm glad that someone caught the Teen Wolf references, I was hoping somebody would. Enjoy this chapter of "Freak", Guest. :3**

 **Stardust16: Thank you for the kind words. I'm glad you like Katherine. And I agree, making OC's into likable characters can be so hard sometimes (I was worried that Katherine and Isabelle would've looked like a Mary Sues and that Tyler would've looked like a Gary Stu (male version of a Mary Sue)), but I'm glad that so many people thought that I pulled it off so well. And Amelia's pulling off the ultimate façade right now, isn't she? Actually, I have read the Dork Diaries before, and Mackenzie's personality had a little bit of influence over Amelia's personality. But the main influence that I got for Amelia's personality and her very well acted façade of being an innocent, all-around nice girl was from Katherine Pierce's character from The Vampire Diaries book series/TV show (of the same name). As for the summary, I'm glad you find it so intriguing. That's a good guess with Chase being kidnapped and held hostile for his ability and unfortunately getting involved in stuff he had no partaking in, you'll just have to keep reading to see if Chase gets caught up in some sticky Government verses the bad guys mess. And maybe Kathase'll become a couple in the future, and maybe Bree and Tyler (you said Jayden, but I assume you meant Tyler, if you didn't, ignore that) will become a couple, and maybe Adam and Isabelle will become a couple, too. I also don't mind long reviews, I enjoy reading your thoughts! Seriously, I love them so much! So please keep the long reviews coming, Stardust16! ;) Glad you liked the first chapter so much, and here is the second chapter of "Freak". Enjoy!**

 **Skoliver4Ever: Glad you like it so far. And you'll have to keep reading to find out if Katherine and Chase'll start dating if Jayden and Katherine break up. ;)**

 **Team Always-Proud-Of-Troyler: That's fine if you're late in reviewing, I usually am too. (Procrastinators for the win, am I right? It runs in our family, doesn't it?) And you'll have to wait and see if Amelia'll ruin Katherine's life in some way shape or form, I know how hard that is for you to wait for things, sis! Hopefully you won't have to wait too long for chapter three of "Freak". Here's the next update. Enjoy it, sis! :3**

 **MTDfan 126: Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoy it. And you'll have to keep reading to find out.**

 **Olivia: Glad you like Katherine so far. Here's the next update.**

 **It's Me Miller48: Here's the next update.**

 **Boy 9 Girl 438: Here is the next update. Enjoy.**

 **Guest: Thank you for the compliments. I'm glad I made an actor/actress list for my characters. People seem to like it that I did that. Here is the next update.**

 **Guest 24: You'll have to keep reading to find out if Katherine and Chase'll end up together. Hope you stick around to find out. Enjoy this chapter, Guest 24.**

 **Guest: Here's the next chapter. I'm glad that this story is so different/unique to you. Enjoy.**

 **Guest39719 Yes49: Here is the next chapter. Enjoy.**

 **Wow, I can't believe that the first chapter got 14 reviews. Thanks for that, guys. Seriously.**

 **XXX**

 **Easton Callahan's actor is Jason Dolley.**

 **I hope you guys enjoy the second chapter of "Freak". :3**

 **XXX**

 **Katherine's POV**

I walk into the lunchroom and sit down at our regular table, watching everyone up at the lunch line with a bored expression. They move in line slowly, kind of like the walkers from The Walking Dead do. But they don't actually look like the walkers, thankfully. I can somewhat imagine the students somehow turning into walkers. I also can imagine their snarling, growling, hissing, the unkempt, greasy and grimy hair, the horrible disfigurations on their faces, dried blood crusting around their mouths or fresh blood streaked down their chins or something, and the tattered, absolutely filthy clothing. I can just see it happening, and it is disturbing, to say the least.

Nothing like that is actually there on the students, though. However, the tired, sunken eyes are most definitely there. I can see it, plain as day. School stresses everybody out, for different reasons.

I almost shudder at that image, of the students looking and turning into walkers. Thankfully, I didn't lose my appetite, because boy, I sure am hungry. That's one of the disadvantage of having a senior lunch instead of a junior lunch. I eat later in the day, but so do Tyler, Leo (how that even happened, I don't even know) Chase and Bree.

"Hey, Katherine." I glance up at the sound of my name and smile when I see Adam, holding his black lunchbox in his hand

"Hi, Adam."

"I have a question." He says suddenly.

"What is it?"

"Did you know that Finland invented dogs?" **(1)** He asks brightly, sliding into the blue chair next to me and opening up his lunchbox.

". . .What?"

"Yeah. Trent Darby told that me in Geometry." He answers, pulling out a few good food items from his lunchbox. Hmm. If I ask nicely enough, maybe he'll allow me to take something.

". . .You do realize he was just doing that to indirectly call you dumb, right?" I ask, shoving a forkful of salad in my mouth and chewing.

Adam makes a dismissive hand gesture. "Nah. I know he's right."

"Hey, you mind if I steal your pudding?" I point to the Hershey's pudding cup.

He shakes his head, nodding at the pudding cup. "Oh, go ahead, I don't mind, I was probably gonna throw it out anyway."

"Don't want to be wasteful, Adam." I smile, pulling the pudding cup closer to me. "Thanks, Adam."

He smiles. "No problem, Kat."

I shove another forkful of salad into my mouth, chewing silently before I swallow the bite of salad before saying: "He's incorrect, you know. Finland didn't "invent" dogs. Finland invented the sauna, the ice skate, sound film, the mobile phone, the molotov cocktail. . ." I list, then realize I'm babbling and I'm sure that Adam doesn't care about what Finland actually invented, ". . .but no dogs." I finish.

"Wait," Adam gasps, "Finland didn't invent dogs?!"

"No." I reply. "Finland did not invent dogs."

"Well, then, Trent lied to me." Adam grunts, looking visibly dishearted by this not-brand-new-news-to-anyone-else-but-apparently-new-to-Adam information. "I thought we were acquaintances!" He whines, pouting. In that moment, Adam Davenport looks like a two year old man-child.

I shake my head. "No, Adam. You and Trent, and the rest of the football team, are not anything close to acquaintances. Well, Tyler and you are friends, but I digress. Where was Tyler, anyway?"

"He was out of the classroom. He had to go to his locker." He replies.

"Oh." I say, then say in a clear voice, "Adam, Finland didn't invent dogs, okay?"

"But Katherine, every single one of of the football players said that fact was true." He protests weakly.

I don't answer him. Instead, I silently hope that we let the subject drop. It does when Adam starts digging into his food. I feel slightly better, because I know that I would not have the heart to say to Adam that they (Trent and the football players - except for Tyler, obviously) wanted to see him get excited over an incorrect fact then make fun of him for being so naïve and stupid. Tyler and myself have to go through this almost every day with Isabelle.

Isabelle, Chase, Bree and Tyler walk into the lunchroom and sit down next to me, in that order.

"Hi guys." Adam greets, all smiley again.

I frown, noticing that Leo didn't come into the room. "Hey, where's Leo?"

"He had to stay behind in art class." Isabelle answers. "He had to clean up the mess."

I frown. "Mess? What mess?"

Isabelle giggles. "He accidentally spilled two paint cans. Went all over the floor, the chairs, and other people's paintings. Mrs. Minkus **(2)** was _so mad._ You should've seen her face. It went as red as a tomato." She says tomato like "tay-mah-toe". Normally she says tomato like toe-may-toe, but for some reason she didn't say it like she usually does. It bothers me, but I don't comment on it.

"How the heck do you "accidentally" spill two paint cans?" Bree muses, popping a tatter tot into her mouth.

"I don't know, but the aftermath probably wasn't too good." I reach over and steal a few from her, popping them into my mouth. Bree narrows her eyes at me, but we both know that she doesn't mind in the slightest. Bree, Isabelle and myself have this odd little game where we all steal something from each other's food during lunch. Last week, Bree stole Isabelle's chocolate milk and drank it all before Isabelle could even say "Hey!". On Wednesday of last week, I stole Bree's double chocolate fudge brownie. On Monday of two weeks ago, Isabelle stole my carrots and called me a bunny rabbit, to which I retaliated by stealing Isabelle's chocolate chip cookie and ate it slowly while flipping her "the bird", as it's said here in America. Isabelle held a grudge against me for all of five minutes before she rolled her eyes and proclaimed that holding a grudge was stupid.

"You know how clumsy he is." Adam says, like its the most obvious thing in the whole world.

There's a slight pause, and then: "True." We all say at the same time.

We all stay wrapped up in a comfortable silence until Tyler breaks the silence.

"So, Chase," Tyler says, "congratulations on the 98% in Math."

He frowns. "For what?" He asks curiously.

"Your geometry test." He replies, frowning. "Highest grade and whatnot. You don't remember getting your test grade back?"

"Geometry test. . ." Chase echoes slowly, suddenly looking distracted. "Oh, yeah, I remember. Thanks, Tyler." He mumbles.

I tilt my head. He's not acting like his normal self, and that worries me. Usually, he'd be boasting that he would become valedictorian when we finally graduated high school (or he'd at least somewhat proud of his high grade). But he's almost completely silent, and that worries me. "Are you okay, Chase?" I ask gently.

"Yeah, Katherine," he replies instantly, "I'm fine."

I nod and continue to pick at my lunch, absentmindedly moving my salad around with my fork, bored out of my mind again.

Two minutes later, I narrow my eyes when I see an unwanted figure move towards our table. Her long dark brown hair swings back and forth as she approaches us, or more specifically, my brother.

Amelia Graham herself places her hands in front of my brother's eyes. "Guess who, guys?" She giggles.

Tyler pretends to think about it, and I find an opportunity to annoy Amelia. And who wouldn't pass up _that_ opportunity? Not me, that's for sure.

"An ugly, fanged-and-talon-clawed demonic cheerleader that's wearing enough make-up to fill a house and do the paint job of three minivans?" I pipe up, smirking to myself at her annoyed expression.

Amelia's about to speak up, but I beat her to the punch, the small smirk still on my lips. "Seriously, Amelia, honey," I drawl out in a Southern accent, "you don't get it, do you?"

She frowns. "Get what?"

"Katherine," Tyler warns in a low voice, but I ignore him.

"You still don't know that a freaking black bear that just killed something - maybe even a few _somethings_ \- looks one hundred percent better than you right now?" Okay, maybe I'm being a little mean, but this one bottle-brunette girl ruined my entire social life (and when I say "ruined", I mean that I was too nervous to get out of bed in the morning, dreading the long school day ahead, suffering alone in a place where mean, annoying people were around me constantly. I would be forced to stay there for seven hours, five days a week) throughout the first and the second year of middle school. (Eventually, in the third quarter of eighth grade, I finally got my social status back - and I've made it up to the "almost-top-of-the food chain" or whatever it is people call it nowadays since then - but that's not important to me at all. My social status doesn't matter to me at all any more, but it did when I was younger.)

Amelia and myself were the best of friends until middle school came around. (God, that's so cliché it's not even funny.) Anyway, we were inseparable, like two peas in a pod. We were the kind of best friends that did basically everything together, from sharing secrets to sitting with each other on the bus to hanging out at the mall for hours on end to going on lengthy vacation trips together over the holiday breaks we almost always get.

But then that friendship shattered completely when we were in the sixth grade.

Amelia and myself's rivalry has been - and still is - pretty well known around the school. It's been that way - AKA our rivalry being so well known around the school - ever since the seventh grade, when she told the entire school I "still wet the bed" (I haven't _ever_ wet my bed once in my entire life, I'm being one hundred percent honest with you guys!) spread nasty rumors about me, and even posted a clear picture of me making an extremely weird face on to Twitter, for everyone on the Internet to see.

In my defense, I was looking at the Empire State Building from extremely far away. My seventh grade English class field trip (which just so happened to have Amelia on it because she was in my English class) went to New York City to go to a Broadway show.

God, I'm glad that the school was notified through an "anonymous source" (AKA one of the my mother's friends on the police force) of the picture and the cyber bullying I was receiving (I was getting hurtful messages from kids in school and from people that I don't actually know or who live in different towns/different states) contacted Amelia's parents, and very forcefully made (AKA while her parents sat down next to her and watched her) her delete that horrendous Twitter account five days later. The school board threatened to suspend her for four weeks for the prank she had played, so of course Amelia's parents took action and forced her to take it down. What parent in their right mind would want their kid to be suspended from school? If my siblings or I ever got suspended, I'm afraid my mother - whose the Mission Creek Chief of Police - might turn into a copy of Nogitsune-Isabelle (re-named Nogitsune-Mom or Nogitsune-Veronica) and go all very creepy psychopath mother on our butts. Lock us up in our rooms, handcuff us to a metal bench, detox us of any electronic device (I.E. Internet, laptop/cell phone usage) or any other means of telecommunication.

I cringe at that thought. The aftermath of my siblings having their phones taken away wouldn't be too pretty. Trust me, I know what that aftermath looks like. Isabelle and Tyler can't seem to live without their phones. If they don't have their phones with them all the time, the visibly are nervous. They quickly drum their fingers on a table, run their hands through their hair almost obsessively, and their eyes are unfocused, almost dazed. On the other hand, I can manage just fine. Unlike my older siblings, I don't live off my phone 24/7. I don't need to, really.

Amelia narrows her eyes at me. "Shut up."

"Why don't you make me?" I sass.

"Fine." Amelia straightens. "Shut up, you annoying, ugly _pig._ "

Everyone goes rigid at this, while I just roll my eyes, not at all bothered by the words. However, for my siblings and friends it's different. Isabelle narrows her eyes dangerously, while Bree clenches her fists so hard her knuckles turn white. Adam's eyes look five shades darker, almost black. He's angry, I can tell that much. Tyler's eyes are narrowed slightly at his girlfriend. Isabelle opens her mouth to defend me (like a good sister should) but surprisingly Chase beats her to the punch.

"Amelia," he says in a deadly calm voice, "you need to leave." His hands clench into tight fists, and his eyes are suddenly filled with a dangerous light, which burns with the intensity of a forest fire. " _Now_."

Amelia raises her eyebrow. "What are you going to do about it if I don't leave, freak?"

"Don't call my brother a freak!" Adam and Bree immediately say, defensive.

"Amelia," Tyler hisses, glancing at his girlfriend with annoyance and slight anger clearly brimming in his eyes. "You need to leave. Now."

Amelia rolls her eyes and flips her long hair over her shoulder, her hand going to her hip. "Fine. I'll leave. But only because Tyler asked me to." She says snootily. "Bye, guys." She glances at Chase with an expression that screams: "You're not worth my time, you're nothing but dirt under my shoe". She sighs, being over-dramatic, as usual. "Bye bye, freak." And then she turns on her heel and saunters off, hips swinging tauntingly.

Chase winces a bit when she's gone, his face falling at the words, and I reach over and pat his shoulder. "You're not a freak, Chase." I reassure him in a soothing tone.

Chase's eyes flicker up to my own eyes. "Katherine-"

"If anything, you're the most normal person I've ever met."

He smiles. "Thanks, Katherine."

"You're welcome." I smile warmly at him.

 **XXX**

"Hey, wait up, Katherine!" I turn around at the sound of my name to see Chase jogging down the sidewalk.

"What's up, Chase?" I ask.

Chase smiles. "Nothing." He frowns. "Where're Leo, Isabelle, Bree, Caleb, Jayden, Tyler and Adam?"

"Tyler stayed after with his significant other. He's got football practice later, so I don't think that he'd want to go home for an hour and have to return to school for his practice. Leo's-"

"Okay, who says "significant others" anymore?" I pause. "Well, except older people. And that means that you, sir, are old." I tease, smirking a bit.

"I'm sixteen years old. That's not old." He retorts with an eye roll. " _Anyway_ ," he clears his throat and continues, "Leo's at Janelle's house to complete a Science project that's due on Thursday. Adam and Bree told me that they are staying after with Mrs. Minkus to complete their clay art sculptures. Isabelle's staying after school with one of her friends. And Caleb and Jayden are staying after for football practice."

"I know." I say. "Jayden texted me and told me that he couldn't hang out with me."

Chase nods. "Oh, okay. So," He prompts, "what do you want to do when we get to my house?"

"Your house? Let's go to mine."

"Okay, fine." He complies. "So, again, what do you want to do when we get to your house."

"Homework, maybe."

". . .I was gonna ask you if you wanted to make fun of reality TV shows with me, but homework works too. But can make fun of reality TV shows after we do our homework, Katherine." He suggests, and I nod.

"Sounds good." I smile before continuing to walk down the sidewalk, and Chase falls in line beside me.

We chat for a few minutes, and my house comes into view. We walk up the driveway, and I pull my house key out of my pocket and unlock my front door, pushing it open.

I almost immediately trot over to the couch and sit down, throwing my backpack into the single chair across the room. "Finally I can take my socks and shoes off." I mutter.

Chase rolls his eyes and sets his backpack down on the dark wooden kitchen table before grabbing a snack. He opens the pantry and pauses. "Katherine?"

I pull off my socks and shoes, then make an odd little noise as I unzip my book bag and pull out my bright green homework folder. "Yeah, Chase?" I open up my folder, blinking.

"Why did you break and enter into our home at six in the morning and raid our pantry for Nutella when you have three jars of unopened Nutella jars just sitting in your pantry?"

I shoot up like a rocket at this new information, eyes widening at the mention of the not one, not two, but _three_ jars of unopened Nutella. "Wait, are you being serious right now, Chase? We have three unopened jars of Nutella?" I can't contain the excitement in my voice.

He chuckles and steps out of the way, showing me that in fact that what he said is true. Those jars are just sitting there, once again just begging for me to open the jar and dive into the milk chocolate, smooth hazelnut goodness, like that Nutella jar was at the Davenport household.

"Yep."

I frown, then blink. "Isabelle must've gotten more Nutella. She has a free period."

"Oh, yeah." Chase mutters. "She has her free period fifth period, right?"

I nod. "Yeah. She does." I glance down at my homework folder, then at the jars of Nutella, then down at my homework folder again. "After we do homework and make fun of how bad reality TV shows are, let's make something sweet that has Nutella in it." I pause, thinking it over. "Ooh, how about Nutella and frosting filled cookies?"

"We made those on Halloween, Katherine." He reminds me.

"Ugh, fine." I pause, thinking it over. "Wait, how about Nutella brownies?"

Chase laughs quietly. "That sounds good to me, Katherine." He says, walking over to his backpack and opening it up. He grabs his homework folder and sits down next to me.

"Okay, Katherine," he says, opening up his folder and grabbing his Geometry homework, "let's get started-"

"That sounds like you're tutoring me." I interrupt him, smirking. Between you and me, I wouldn't mind it if he was my tutor. He's really smart, and encouraging.

Chase reaches over and lightly slaps my shoulder. "I'm not your tutor, I'm your best friend."

"And you're the best friend a girl could ask for." I say cheekily, which causes him to blush. I watch his embarrassed face with a great deal of amusement.

"Shut up." He mutters, cheeks aflame. "Anyway, the Pythagorean theorem states that. . ."

 **XXX**

 **Bree's POV**

"Hey, Tyler!" I have yell his name over the howling, chilly wind. I watch the older boy's football blue jersey - number 42 in white lettering - bounce up and down a little bit as he bounds towards the end of the football field with his teammates to go change out of their gross, sweaty football jerseys and go home. I wrap my fuzzy black North-face jacket around my petite frame, trying to block out the chilly New York (3) air. I shudder then slide my IPhone back into my pocket, zip it up, (I was playing Angry Birds for the last two minutes of Tyler's football practice, waiting for said practice to be over) and hop off the icy cold bleachers.

Another blast of cold air makes me shiver,and lean against the cool metal railing, holding up my quickly-numbing, very-close-to-being-frozen hands and waving them around like a less-than-mentally-stable woman to get Tyler's attention.

Tyler must've heard me even with the wind howling across the entire football field like a banshee, because I can see his lips moving, like he's quickly saying something to his teammates. His teammates nod and all start walking towards the school again, and I can hear them chatting, even from this far away.

I watch as Tyler spins on his heel, jogging towards me. He quickly takes off his football helmet as he stops in front of me. His dark brown hair is slightly messy, but he doesn't even move his hands up to his hair to try to fix his hair.

I shiver as another gust of icy cold wind whips through my jacket, which is doing next to nothing to protect me from it. Dang it, I knew that I should have brought a heavier jacket with me than this.

"Hi, Tyler." I greet again, glad because I no longer have to shout to be heard.

"Hi, Bree." He grins, settling his helmet under the crook of his arm. "What's up?"

"Nothing much, Ty. Nice job out there." I comment, nodding towards the football field. "You're amazing at football."

Tyler laughs. "I'm flattered by your kind words, Bree Davenport."

I blush despite myself and the cold temperature. "I'm being serious, Tyler. It's no wonder you're Mission Creek's star quarterback."

"Yeah." He agrees, "It's no wonder. So, why're you here?"

"Well, Caitlin and Zoey left a little while ago, and I didn't really feel like going home. I just don't feel like sitting around at home, bored out of my mind. So, I decided to watch the team practice."

He blinks. "Really?"

"Yep." To be totally honest, I didn't understand more than half the things that was going on during said practice, but I tried. So, I get some points for effort, right? I flick my eyes to the football field, where the football coach - Mr. Pierson - is putting away some of the equipment. Then I glance back at him, a small frown tugging at my lips.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. I just wanted to watch you practice and whatnot." I pause, thinking over my words before realizing how weird creepy sounds. "Uh, does that sound kind of stalkerish Tyler? I swear, that's not my intention at all. I don't stalk you. I was just bored and didn't feel like going home. Um, if you're uncomfortable with me being here, I can just leave. Uh, I-" he cuts me off before I can ramble more. I seriously want to chew my lips off, but I resist the urge.

"No, no," Tyler interrupts, then chuckles quietly. "I don't mind."

"Oh." I say, relief coursing through me. "Good."

Tyler smiles, adjusting his football helmet under his arm, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "So, after I shower and change, you want to go to Saint Waters High with me?"

I blink a few times, momentarily taken aback by the question. Saint Waters High School is another high school in our town. The drive from Mission Creek to Saint Waters is thirty-five minute drive there and back, even when there's no traffic. "Uh, sure, I guess. But why, exactly?"

"The football team has a game going on there tonight, and coach asked me to go scope out the competition. Um, I was wondering if you wanted to go with me. . ." He trails off, raises his eyebrow at that last part.

"Why?" I ask again, biting down on my lower lip.

"I don't know, I think it'd be nice to have you around." He replies smoothly.

I roll my eyes. "It sounds like you're taking me out on a date."

Tyler shakes his head. "It's not a date-date, Breezy." I roll my eyes at my childhood nickname. "It'll just be two friends hanging out together. Besides," he adds after a moment, "I have a girlfriend."

I roll my eyes. "I know that, Tyler. Everyone in Mission Creek knows that."

Tyler chuckles. "So, you want to go with me, Bree?"

I smile. "I'd love to go with you, Tyler. By the way, where is the- um, I mean, Amelia?" I almost said "The Wicked Witch of the West", but then I realized that I was talking to Tyler. Tyler-who-doesn't-know-who-the-real-Amelia-is Tyler. Good save, Bree.

"She had to go home before ninth period started to take care of her sister." He answers.

"Erin caught that bug that's been going around the middle school?" Erin is Amelia's younger sister. She's in seventh grade.

"Yeah. She did."

"Oh. Poor kid." I mutter, then say louder: "Who are Saint Waters playing against tonight?"

"Swathmore High **(4)**." He answers.

"That rich-kid private school? Really?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, sure. I'll go with you." I smile.

Tyler grins. "Great. Where do you want to meet up?"

I run my hand through my hair before flicking it over my right shoulder. "The main hallway sound good to you?"

Tyler nods. "Yep. Sounds good. See you in a few minutes, Bree."

I nod and wave at him again, and Tyler smiles at me before spinning around on his heel and walking towards the locker rooms.

I smile to myself and start walking down the ramp, off the bleachers, past the concession stand, and towards the main entrance of the school, sending my siblings and parents a quick text that I would be home late because I'm out with Tyler.

 **XXX**

 **Katherine's POV**

"Okay, that was. . . _interesting_ , to say the least." I say through a heavy sigh.

"Yeah it was." Chase agree, rubbing his eyes, still in shock because of what I just watched. It was bad.

I reach over over and grabs the remote from the coffee table in front of us, and shuts off the TV. I run my fingers through my hair. "Wow, that's like two hours of my life I won't ever be able to get back." I mutter, dropping the remote onto the couch.

"You were the one who wanted to watch bad reality TV shows." Chase point out. "Not me."

I nod. "I know that I was." I glance over at him, sighing again. "You want to know something, Chase?"

"What?"

"I don't get the whole point of Honey Boo-Boo Child, or whatever the heck it's called." I complain. "Like, who the heck even watches this kind of stuff?"

As stated before, we had been watching a bunch of really bad (poorly acted or just plain cringe-worthy) reality TV shows, like the aforementioned Honey Boo-Boo Child. We watched a bunch of other really poorly acted (bad) TV shows, like The Bachelor, Big Brother, Keeping Up With the Kardashian's, The Bachelorette, America's Next Top Model, Jersey Shore, The Real Housewives TV series (including but not limited to: The Real Housewives of New York City, The Real Housewives of Atlanta, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and The Real Housewives of D.C.), Love & Hip Hop, and finally, Dance Moms.

"People with too much time on their hands and no social life." He deadpanned.

"Yes, that is so true." I agree.

Chase smirks, grabbing a handful of the bowl of the buttery, salty treat known as popcorn that's half-eaten and shoving said handful into his mouth, chewing.

I sigh heavily again, running my hand through my long brown hair. "You could say that again." I mutter.

He rolls his eyes, swallowing the popcorn handful in his mouth before saying: "I could do just that, but I don't want to." I reach over and take a sip of water.

I slap his shoulder, my blue eyes twinkling. "You're so annoying, Chase."

He sticks my tongue out at me. "Shut up." He then throws a piece of popcorn at me, sighing when I - (I have extremely, extremely fast reflexes. In fact, it's almost ungodly) - quickly catches it in my mouth. He grunts in annoyance, but he doesn't verbally say anything else.

"Ha ha ha." I say flatly, grabbing a handful of popcorn and shoving the handful into my mouth.

Suddenly Isabelle and Leo burst through the front door (which almost causes me to choke on my mouthful of extra salty popcorn). They're chatting away about something that I personally have no interest in: A new movie trilogy called Zombie Wolves movie (from the producers of the Pig-Zombie movies) that just came out: Attack of the Killer Zombie Wolves. Pretty self-explanatory title, if you ask me. Basically what happens in the movie is: Zombie/werewolf hybrids attack and wreak havoc and chaos on the world. Well, duh. But on a more serious note, the plot summary of said movie is: Zombie Werewolves attack the infamous New York City and infect a bunch of people, turning them into Zombie Werewolves. The military is sent in to contain the pandemic, but they fail (epically, and when I say the word epically I mean they're just more casualties) and the Zombie Werewolves rule the dead-empty streets of New York City. When the dust settles and the smoke clears, the (few) survivors of the initial first wave of Zombie Werewolves have to figure out how they're going to survive in this new, hectic, dangerous world.

Yeah, I don't know what the movie producer, Giselle Vickers **(5)** , was thinking when she started making that specific movie. But maybe people think that the movie is good, and maybe I'm just being biased because I'm not interested in those types of movies. For me, they don't have any logic to them whatsoever, which bothers me. Chase too. (I mean, Killer Pig-Zombies? What? How does that even work? How did they get infected? Why couldn't some fancy, handsome, upper-class scientist played by, oh, I don't know, Ashton Kutcher, make a cure for it?)

"Hey, guys." Chase greets, popping a piece of popcorn into his mouth.

Leo stops his part of the Zombie Werewolves conversation long enough to say: "Hi, Katherine, hi Chase."

"I thought you were going home after school, Chase?" Isabelle asks inquisitively. He shrugs.

"Nah. I don't think I could handle Adam screaming at the top of his lungs trying to scare birds. I'd get annoyed then get a headache. Not fun."

"Oh."

I frown at Leo. Why is he here? He doesn't live here. Well, neither does Chase, but that's not the point. "Weren't you at Janelle's house to finish up a project?"

"I was, but she kicked me out."

"For being too creepy?" I tease.

"No, because we're almost finished with the project." He retorts. "So, I came here to hang out. Big D and Mom aren't back from work yet, and since I'm a minor, I can't stay home all by myself. It's illegal."

"Oh." I say.

"Where's Adam?" Chase asks after a few heartbeats of silence.

"He's at Starbucks, getting snacks and drinks for all of us." Leo answers.

One of Chase's eyebrows raise. "At 3:10 in the afternoon?"

"Uh, Chase, it is 4:21 in the afternoon." Isabelle replies.

"Wait, it is?" Chase and I ask at the same time, blinking over at each other.

Leo nods. "Yep."

I chuckle quietly. "Wow."

Isabelle frowns. "You guys didn't know that?"

"No." Chase answers for the both of us, glancing over at me, amused. "I guess time flies when you're making fun of reality TV shows."

We both laugh when Isabelle and Leo glance at us strangely. I smile. Chase should laugh more often.

Chase frowns suddenly. "Where are Bree and Tyler?"

"Tyler texted me a few minutes ago and said that he and Bree are just leaving school now. Said they wanted to go to Saint Waters High School." Isabelle says, pulling out of Samsung Galaxy 6S and showing us the text.

I frown. "What? Why would they go there?"

"There's a football game going on there tonight." Isabelle answers, slipping her phone back into her jacket pocket. "The Dingoes-" that's our high school football team, "might be going up against Saint Waters next week for the quarterfinals if they win. If not, they go up against Swathmore." She explains.

"What time will they be home by?" Chase asks.

"Around 5:30PM." She answers.

Chase nods. "Okay. Sounds good, Isabelle." Then I turn to Chase, my bright eyes eyes sparkling with amusement. "Chase, I thought that we would go make something sweet with Nutella in it." She asks it like a question.

He frowns, not understanding what I mean immediately. "What?" His brain must be _completely_ fried at the moment. Great. That's just awesome.

"Yeah. You said that earlier, before we started to watch TV." I reply slowly.

He just frowns, not knowing what I mean, but then after a moment it all comes back to me. He remembers now, that's good. "Oh!" He says loudly, then nods. He grabs my hand and pulls me up.

"You remember?" I ask.

"Yeah," He nods, "let's go make something."

 **XXX**

 **Chase's POV**

A loud and very obnoxious beeping noise slices through the silence of the house, alerting me that the brownies are finally done.

Katherine's head snaps up, momentarily confused as to what that noise is. Realization settles into her blue eyes as she remembers the treat we made together. It's done, and I can tell she's excited. She bookmarks the page she was reading in her book, one of the Percy Jackson books she's already read but is re-reading it while we both waited for the brownies to be done.

Isabelle and Leo had disappeared outside to go take a walk, get some fresh air. Maybe even "pet a dog or two" in Isabelle's words. She had dragged Leo out of the house before he could protest. Poor kid.

Katherine stands up, brushes her long brown hair out of her face and lets it fall over her shoulder, and she walks over to the kitchen and grabs an oven-mitt that's sitting on the countertop and slips the red oven-mitt on on her left hand before quickly opening up the oven door. Her long brown hair gets blown back a bit as she opens it (from the temperature/heat of the oven) reaching inside to grab the brownies we made. She carefully sets the pan of brownies on the top of the stove, then turns off the oven, then shuts the oven door with her foot.

"Chase, hand me a jar of Nutella." She instructs, taking off the oven-mitt and grabbing a spatula, noticing that there's some left over. . . Something. . . on the spatula, so she walks over to the sink and turns on the hot water, grabbing the sponge and running it under the water before smearing some of the Dawn soap on it and scrubbing away the whatever-it-is. She turns off the water and dries off the spatula. We wait a few minutes for the brownies to cool in silence, and I reach over and grab another spatula, and we together start spreading the Nutella on the cooled brownies.

"You want to put sprinkles on it, too?" Katherine asks me, smiling.

I grin. "Do you even have to ask, Katherine?"

Katherine giggles. "No, I suppose I don't need to." She walks over to the pantry and pauses. "What colors do you want?"

"Red, blue, green, purple and white." I list.

Katherine nods and successfully finds all of the sprinkle colors. She shows them all to me with a small smile flickering across her lips, then places them on the counter. "You sure that's all you want, Chase?"

I cross my arms over my chest. "Do you guys have any yellow sprinkles?"

Katherine nods and reaches into the pantry, pulling out some yellow sprinkles. "Yep." She places it on the counter.

I smile and snag the yellow sprinkles from the counter and pop the lid open. "So, you want to see who can put the most sprinkles on two separate sides of brownies in thirty seconds?"

Katherine looks over at me, puzzled. "Are you challenging me?"

"Yeah. Loser has to give the winner five bucks and has to take the other one out to lunch when the weekend rolls around."

Katherine grabs the green sprinkles and smirks as she opens it up, smirking widely at me. "You're _so_ going to lose this challenge, Chase."

 **XXX**

 **Leo's POV**

Isabelle and I stand in the middle of the road, both of us silently watch the young woman with the Yorkshire Terrier walk away. We had seen them walking around, and decided to approach them. We learnt the name of the lady, her name was Samantha, and the Yorkshire Terrier's name too. The dog's name is Primrose, kinda like Primrose Everdeen from The Hunger Games.

"Nice dog." Isabelle comments, zipping up her dark green jacket to her throat.

"Yeah. I want a dog someday." I say, moving over to walk on the sidewalk. Don't want to get hit by a car. That'd be bad, not to mention painful.

Isabelle falls in step next to me and smiles at me. "Really? What kind of dog would you want?"

"A Golden Retriever." I reply almost instantly, smiling at the thought. Ever since I was little, I've wanted a Golden Retriever named Cooper. But my mom wouldn't allow it, for some reason.

"Really? What would you name it?"

"Probably Cooper or something like that."

"A generic name." Isabelle says flatly. "That's so original."

I blink, slightly surprised at Isabelle's choice of words. Generic. "Hey, I've wanted a Golden Retriever named Cooper since I was seven years old."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"I've wanted to have a dog." She blurts out.

I blink. "Really, Isabelle?"

"Yeah, ever since I was little, I've wanted a dog named Simba."

I frown. "Like from The Lion King? That Simba?"

"Yep."

"Cool."

"So, Leo," she drawls, running her fingers through her long brown hair, "do you have any crushes?" Wow, she changed the subject pretty fast, didn't she? Impressive.

"On you?" I joke, "no."

Isabelle rolls her eyes. "Not what I meant, Leo."

"Good. You're kind of too old for me, anyway. Besides, a freshman dating a senior doesn't seem right in my mind's eye."

Isabelle shrugs her shoulders. "Yeah. That's a little bit weird."

I laugh. "Besides Isabelle, I already have a crush on someone." I mentally curse, wishing I could take that back as soon as it left my mouth. I hadn't wanted to say that out loud. I wanted to keep my crush a secret from my friends and my family members. I wanted to tell them who my current crush is when the time felt right. Dang it.

Isabelle raises her eyebrow. "On who? Tell me!" She giggles, jumping up and down and squealing in a high pitched tone. She reminds me of an overexcited child.

I pat her shoulder, and thankfully, she stops jumping and squealing. "I have a crush on someone named None-Of-Your-Business."

"Leo!" She snaps, glaring at me.

"But in all seriousness, I'll tell you guys who my crush is when I'm ready."

She frowns, licking her lips. The cool wind starts picking up, and we simultaneously shudder. "But Leo-"

I stand my ground. "I'm not telling you."

"Ugh. Fine." Isabelle mutters, and I'm glad when Isabelle lets the subject drops.

 **XXX**

 **Bree's POV**

I pull my phone out of my purse that's by my side and unlock it and begin to scroll through my contacts to click on Mr. Davenport's name. I glance up from my phone when I hear footsteps coming toward me, only to see Tyler walk up to me. He's out of his football jersey and in his regular clothes again. I smile a bit.

"Hey Bree, are you ready to go to Saint Waters?" He asks.

I nod, glancing down at my phone to send a quick text to Mr. Davenport. "Yeah." I say out loud while typing the text to my father.

 **To Mr. Davenport:**

 **Hey Mr. Davenport, I just wanted to let you know that I'm leaving with Tyler to go to Saint Waters High School now. Do you want me to pick up anything from the store while we're out and about? Anything at all?**

I hit send, and a few seconds later, my phone lights up and my text tone beeps. I glance down at my phone to see that it is a response from Mr. Davenport, and I type in my passcode, reading the text from him.

 **From Mr. Davenport:**

 **No, we're all set on food, except for peanut butter and Nutella. I'm 100% sure that Katherine ate all of our Nutella, and that one of Leo's friends stole the peanut butter.**

I reply to his text almost instantly, typing quickly:

 **To Mr. Davenport:**

 **Okay. I'll text you when we're leaving the game and going to get the food. Bye.**

I wait for a response, but there isn't any. I don't have to look at my phone to know that Mr. Davenport read the message.

I press the off button on my iPhone, and the screen goes dark. I quickly put my ringer on vibrate before sliding my phone into my pocketbook next to me. Luckily, I had been able to very quickly run home and grab a heavier jacket, so I don't have to worry about completely freezing my butt off at Saint Waters High now. Which is great.

I grab my purse then stand up, readjusting my coat.

"C'mon." Tyler says, "we should get going."

I giggle. "It's not like the school will just grow legs and walk away."

"I know," he says, grabbing my free hand, "but if we don't leave now, we'll get home at dark." He says in a matter-of-fact tone, pulling me out of the school. "And I don't know about you, but I don't want to drive in the dark."

"That's what headlights on cars are for, Tyler." I remind him.

"I know that's what they're there for, but I'd rather not be starving like a wolf in winter by the time I get home. Just, come on, Bree."

"Like a wolf in winter?" I question. "Nobody says that."

"Well, I just did." Tyler retorts.

I giggle, then he drags me out of the school, to the parking lot and towards his car, a Black Ford Fusion. This year's model. Fancy car, if I do say so myself.

He pulls his car keys out of his pocket and unlocks his car, and I walk over to the passenger side of the car, open up the door, sit down in the passenger seat, then close it. I set my pocketbook down on my lap, zipping up one of the little compartments when I realize it is open.

Tyler slides into the driver's seat and starts up the car, and I reach over and turn on the radio. A catchy pop tune blasts through the speakers and flows into our eardrums as we pull out of the parking lot of our high school.

 **XXX**

I hop out of the car once it comes to a stop, slamming the door closed.

Tyler slams the driver's door shut and sighs heavily. "Well, here we are."

"Here we are." I echo, glancing around at my new, unfamiliar surroundings. I've never been to Saint Waters High School before, so I really don't know where anything is. However, Tyler has a pretty good idea on where everything is. He's been here a few times for multiple basketball games.

We walk side by side towards the football field, the cold wind and the temperature numbing my fingers within the one minute walk it is from the parking lot to the bleachers. It feels like it's eight degrees colder here than in Mission Creek. We walk into the bleachers and take a seat. A few people I don't recognize surround us, and I can tell how out of place we must look compared to them.

I shift a little bit closer to Tyler, and we both shiver because of the wind. The metal bleachers don't offer any protection from the cold, ruthless wind. This morning before we walked to school, I smartly shoved a black winter hat mittens into my backpack, so I reach into my backpack and grab them, sliding them on.

Tyler glances over at me. "Are you cold?"

"Yeah, I am." I glare at him when he starts laughing. "Well, _sorry_ some of us aren't teenaged boy sized space heaters." I mutter, grumpy.

Tyler smirks and places his hand on my shoulder. I can feel the warmth of his hand through my jacket. It feels nice. "I am a space heater, aren't I?"

I nod. "Yeah. You kind of are." I slide my phone into my pocketbook.

Tyler laughs, and we turn our attention back to the game.

As it turns out, Saint Waters High and Swathmore High are evenly matched, and both are equally good. The two high schools scores' constantly change, first its Saint Waters winning at the moment, then Swathmore makes a comeback and is in the lead, then Saint Waters, then back to Swathmore being in the lead, and, well, you get the idea. The scores change goes back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. Currently, Saint Waters is winning, 37 to 32, but I suspect that will change when it nears halftime. There's only nine minutes left on the clock.

"I'm going to get a snack." I decide out loud, standing up. "You want me to get you anything?"

Tyler glances up at me. "Uh, just a Crunch bar and a hot chocolate, please."

I pull my wallet out of purse. "Sure thing. Will you watch my purse for me, please?"

"Yeah. No problem."

I smile at Tyler before walking around the back of the bleachers to the concession stand. I pay for a Crunch bar for Tyler, a Twix bar for myself, and two cups of hot cocoa for each of us. The lady working at the concession stand hands me two paper sleeves for the hot cocoa, and I thank her for the sleeves before starting to walk towards the bleachers.

While on my way back, a boy literally runs into me, knocking us both down to the ground.

"Ouch." I mutter, still sitting on my butt. Unfortunately for me, the hot chocolate fell from my hands and spilled, but fortunately, it didn't spill on me or the guy that ran into me, it only spilled onto the ground.

"Oh, shoot. I'm so sorry." The boy apologizes, scrambling up. "I'm so clumsy." His blond hair is spiked up at the tips, and his extremely bright emerald green eyes are apologetic.

"It's okay, really." I stand up, brushing myself off.

"I-I'll buy you another two hot chocolates, since I-I made you spill those two." He stutters a bit.

"No, it's fine." I assure him in a calm, gentle voice, fixing my hat so it's covering my ears. "I can buy them again, it's no big deal-"

"No, no. I insist." The boy says quickly, already pulling out his wallet from his jacket pocket despite my protests to put his wallet away. "I'll be back in a minute." He marches off towards the concession stand before I can protest further. I wait there, holding the (not crushed) chocolate snacks in my hand like an idiot and ignoring the people that give me odd looks as they pass by.

The boy with the bright green eyes walks back up to me a few minutes later, holding the styrofoam tray filled that has four cups of hot chocolate in his hands.

"Here you are." He smiles.

I tilt my head and take two of the cups. "You got four?"

The boy nods and glances down at the two remaining hot chocolates, then up at me. "Yeah. Two of these are for you to make up for the ones that I made you drop, and two of these are for myself and my friend, Jack."

"Oh. Okay."

"Speaking of names," he says, biting down on his lower lip, "I didn't catch yours."

I try not to roll my eyes at his bad attempt at flirting. "Oh, I'm Bree Davenport."

"Nice name. Rolls off the tongue." He comments. "I'm Easton. Easton Callahan."

". . .Are you flirting with me?" I ask, a frown tugging at my lips. I know that he is, I just want to gauge his reaction to see if he's a nasty jerk.

His eyes widen slightly, and he swallows hard before shaking his head. "N-no! I wasn't, I uh, I was not flirting with you. I mean, not that you aren't pretty enough to flirt with, you're pretty! It- that's not my intention, to flirt with you, I mean. I'm not trying to come onto y-you, and I-" he babbles nervously then realizes it when he notices my amused expression. "Oh jeez. I must sound like an idiot."

"No no, you're fine." I assure him.

Nope, he's not a nasty jerk, that's for sure.

"Oh. Good. I want to go smash my head into the brick wall over there, but I don't think the school, my family, or my friends would appreciate that."

I run my hand through my hair, tilting my head a bit. "You go to school here, at Saint Waters?"

"Yeah. I'm a junior. I don't recognize you, so you don't to to school here. Do you go to Swathmore?"

"A prestigious rich-kid private school?" I ask through a small laugh.

He laughs lightly. "That's the one."

"Do I look like a snobby rich kid with five cars and a freaking yacht?"

Easton laughs. "You don't."

"Yeah. I know that I don't." I grin, then shake my head. "No, I don't go to school there. I go to Mission Creek High." I explain.

"Oh. Then why're you here?" He asks it hesitantly, like he's trying not to offend me.

"My, uh," I pause, momentarily distracted by a man wearing a "I Love Strong Women" T-shirt wearing black and red face paint that passes by me, "-my friend's on the football team at Mission Creek. They're playing the winner of this game, and the coach wants him to scope out the competition. I just decided to tag along with him."

"Really? What's his name?"

"His name's Tyler. Tyler Sedakar."

His eyes light up in realization. I swear to God, Tyler's like a celebrity in this region of New York, it's actually kind of ridiculous. Now, I'm not jealous of his apparent "fame" here in New York, but he's recognized almost everywhere we go. It gets old fast. "Oh, Tyler Sedakar. Yeah, he's a good sports player."

I nod. "Yeah, Tyler is one of the-"

"Bree." I turn around at the sound of my name to see Tyler standing a foot away, my purse in his arm.

"Oh, hi, Ty."

"Your phone was ringing." He says. "Don't know who it's from, I didn't want to look through your purse. But it kept ringing, so it must be important."

I nod and take my phone out of my purse, handing Tyler his hot chocolate and the Crunch bar I got for him before walking away from Tyler and Easton to go answer it. I missed that call, and I'm about to call the number back when my phone lights up and rings again. I see that it's Isabelle. I wonder what she wants to talk about. I answer my phone, putting it up to my ear.

"Hello?"

" _Hey, Bree. It's Isabelle. How're things going with Tyler?_ "

"Good." I answer.

" _You meet anyone_?" There's a teasing tone in her voice. " _A boy, maybe?_ "

"I did meet someone, actually."

Isabelle squeals so loudly I have to pull the phone away from my ear so I don't lose my hearing.

" _Spill, Davenport._ " She demands in a clear tone after she's done having her little fangirl attack over the fact that I met someone.

I roll my eyes. "Okay, fine. But I don't know but about him, so-"

" _I don't care. Tell me what you know about him, Breezy._ " She commands, voice full of authority. I can almost see the excited grin on her face now. As the only girl in our group to not have a boyfriend, Katherine and Isabelle have been waiting for me to meet "the right guy", which, according to Isabelle, is almost every guy that I become friends with.

I laugh. "So, his name's Easton. . ."

 **XXX**

 **Tyler's POV**

The boy that Bree was talking to is staring at me creepily. I feel uncomfortable, to say the least.

"Uh, hi." I mutter awkwardly.

He smiles. "Hi."

"So. . ." I clear my throat awkwardly when the smile doesn't go away. "Um, do you mind?"

He frowns. "Mind?"

"You're, uh, staring at me, and I'm growing uncomfortable with it. If you could just…" I swallow hard, hoping he gets the hint.

"Oh. Right." He says, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry, it's just that you're Tyler Sedakar. You're kind of a famous sports player-"

"-Around this part of the state of New York. Yeah," I try really hard to keep the annoyance out of my voice, "I know that."

"My name's Easton." He blurts out.

 _I don't care, I didn't ask you for your name, kid._ I think, but quickly plaster a fake smile on my lips to hide my steadily growing annoyance. I don't know why I'm annoyed with the kid, I just am. That's weird. Usually I'm a people person.

I try to start a conversation with him. "So, you met Bree." I begin awkwardly.

"Yeah. She seems like a nice person." Easton says.

"Yeah she is." I agree, taking a sip of my hot chocolate.

"I hope you know that I'm not flirting with her. I don't flirt with other people's girlfriends, I'm not like that. I-"

I cut him off, frowning. ""Girlfriend"?"

"Yeah. Bree's your girlfriend, isn't she?"

I try to keep my face indifferent. "No, uh, she's not. I do have a girlfriend, but it's not Bree."

"Oh." He says, licking his lips. "Sorry, dude."

I shrug nonchalantly. "It's fine. Honest mistake."

Easton nods a bit. "Bree's cute."

I narrow my eyes at him. "She's one of my best friends." Anger starts broiling in my veins. I don't like this guy, something about him just rubs me the wrong way. "So back off." I take a sip from my hot chocolate, glaring at him pointedly.

Easton gets the message and almost instantly backs off. "Right. Sorry." He probably doesn't want to pick a fight he knows he won't win.

"Hey, Easton!" A male's voice calls. We both look over in the same direction to see a dark skinned male who looks around seventeen waving his arms around in the air like a crazy person. "You coming over with that hot chocolate or do I have to start uploading that really embarrassing Halloween picture I took of you, Jaycee, Deanna and Kara on every social media website on the face of this Earth?"

Easton laughs. "No, dude, you really don't have to do that. I'm coming over!" He turns to me. "Bye, Tyler. It was nice meeting you."

"Likewise. Bye, Easton."

He nods and walks off, and I watch him disappear into the crowd before spinning on my heel and quickly walking away from Easton and towards Bree, whose still on the phone.

". . .No Isabelle, you can't kidnap a dog that's tied to a metal pole, that's somebody's pet that is there for a specific reason that I'm sure is a good one, and since Leo's with you, I wouldn't pull any stunts. He's too young to go to jail." She pauses, listening to my sister speak before saying: "No, that's called "stealing", Isabelle." She says through a sigh. "Isabelle, I don't care if the owner isn't around or that there aren't people around you, you aren't kidnapping that dog." **(6)**

"Why does Isabelle want to kidnap a dog?" I ask, curiosity starting to swim in my veins. I know she'd always wanted a dog, but kidnapping someone else's pet seems a bit too extreme, even for her.

Bree shrugs before saying into her cell phone: "Yeah, Tyler's here, next to me. He wants to know why you'd want to kidnap a dog." She pauses, and I can hear Isabelle's voice, I just can't figure out what she's saying. Bree's eyes flick over at me. "Isabelle says that the reason she wants to kidnap a dog is because she wants to name it Simba."

I frown. "Simba? Like Simba from The Lion King?"

"That's the one."

"Oh. Tell her she can't do that. Mom'll be on her case like white on rye." Then I chuckle at the unintentional rhyme that I just made. Haha, I'm so funny.

"Isabelle, Tyler says you can't do that- the reason being that you'd most likely get into trouble with the cops, more specifically, your mother." Bree pauses, and I can faintly hear Isabelle's voice, but once again I can't make out what she's saying. "Yeah, okay. We'll be home in a bit, it's almost halftime. Yeah. Mhm. Sounds good. Bye, Isabelle." She hangs up, clicks her phone off, and slides it back into her pocket.

"Everything okay with Isabelle?" I ask.

"Yeah. I told Leo to drag her away from the dog before she kidnapped it."

I nod. "Good, she won't get in trouble with my mother for kidnapping/stealing." I smirk and take a sip of my hot chocolate.

Bree laughs, taking a sip from her hot chocolate. "Yeah."

I smile. I like her laugh, it's nice. "Now, we have a football game to get back to, don't we, Breezy?" I ask.

"We do, Tyler." She grins.

I smile, taking her hand before pulling her back towards the bleachers to watch the rest of the football game.

 **XXX**

 **Footnote #1 - This is one of Adam's lines from the Lab Rats: Bionic Island. I just had to put it in.**

 **Footnote #2 - Mrs. Minkus is a character from Girl Meets World. I don't own that character, either. I just wanted to have that name make an apperance in Freak.**

 **Footnote #3 - For the sake of this story, Mission Creek is in New York, because of the colder temperatures and the snow. It works better for what I want to happen in the story in the future. Freak is AU, remember that.**

 **Footnote #4 - As stated in the beginning author's note, I don't own Swathmore high/academy. And here is a cameo mention from Kickin' It planted into a Lab Rats story. Who knows, maybe some people caught that reference. ;)**

 **Footnote #5 - Giselle Vickers is the movie producer/villain from Bionic Action Hero that had all of the advanced androids in her army and wanted to destroy Adam, Bree, and Chase (but mostly Chase). Another cameo mention, anyone?**

 **Footnote #6 - This is an actual conversation I had with one of my friends. I was Bree, and her dialogue is what I actually said to my friend. Yes, my friend actually is that weird and crazy, but that's why I love her so much.**

 **XXX**

 **Mia Teresa Davenport: Wow, after writing more than _11,000_ words in just a few days, I'm finally done with this chapter! And I actually updated somewhat faster than I usually do and didn't forget about this story (like uh, all of my other stories, oops). Even I'm impressed with that, and I am the author! I guess I really enjoy writing "Freak", then! I'm sorry that this chapter was a filler, but I wanted to expand on the character's relationships and introduce a few new OC's and make their appearances known and whatnot.**

 **I apologize if there are any mistakes in grammar, spelling, sentence structures, or punctuation. Like last chapter, I proof read this chapter, but with this chapter being so long, I might have missed something. Sorry if I did, guys.**

 **Also, I'm aware that Adam and a few of my other OC's weren't in this chapter that much, but don't worry, there will be more of them in the next chapters. (Adam especially.)**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you guys like my new OC, Easton Callahan. I have a question. Do you guys like Easton? If you guys do like Easton, maybe I'll keep him in for more chapters. Don't forget to give me feedback on this chapter, I put a lot of effort into this chapter, I really wanna know what you guys think of it. If you guys like this story, don't forget to review, follow and favorite it. :3 Anyway, I'll see you all later with chapter three of "Freak"! :3**


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